THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) have cases to answer over non-remittance of revenues to the Federation Account for several months, a new report has shown.

The Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Anthony Ayine, in his Annual Audit Report for 2016, said it was observed from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Components Statements that no collections were reported into the Federation Revenue Account by some revenue collecting agencies for certain months of the year. It was not clear from available records why these months recorded zero revenue collections and no explanation was provided for this.

?The Accountant-General has been requested to obtain an explanation from the Group Managing Director of NNPC and Director, DPR for the non-collection of revenue during these relevant months and ensure that any revenue found due for these months is remitted to the Federation Account, and evidence forwarded for audit verification,? he said.

Ayine added that another abuse of financial regulation of the 2016 budget was found in the illegal movement of monies from two dedicated funds to purposes other than for the mandates of the funds.

He said the money were moved from the Stabilisation Account for states and the Federal Government by the Presidency for the establishment of an Army Barracks and another sum as investment in the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

The two acts, according to him, aside not being tidy on framework of recovery, they are illegal as another case of lending out the Ecological Funds meant to strictly check ecological challenges without records to track recovery.

?From available records, a total of N17,108,583,681.78 accrued from the Federation Account into 0.5 per cent Stabilisation Fund from January ? December 2016.

?During the examination of Central Bank statements for the year, we observed that the sum of N2,812,694,928.36 was released to the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), and N14,374,728,817.20 to the Federal Ministry of Defense from the Stabilisation Fund.

?The Accountant-General has been requested to: Provide the authority for the Funds Invested, tenor of the investment, rate of interest payable, certificate for the funds invested and forward same for audit verification; Explain the utilisation of N14,374,728,817.20 for the purpose of funding a new division contrary to the purpose for which the Fund was created; Provide evidence of refund of this sum of N17,187,423,745.56 back to the Stabilisation Fund,? the report said.